Rocky Patel Set To Debut Hamlet 25th Year

Hamlet 25th Year, which will be a regular-production cigar, features an Ecuadoran Habano wrapper, Pennsylvania broadleaf binder, and filler from Nicaragua and Honduras.

Hamlet Paredes, the former Habanos S.A. ambassador who signed on with Rocky Patel Premium Cigars and released a brand in 2015, is set to debut a milder blend called Hamlet 25th Year at this summer's upcoming IPCPR trade show.

Paredes, according to the company, has worked on the new Hamlet 25th Year since last fall in response to consumers who asked him to create a milder option compared to his original Tabaquero Hamlet Paredes (a medium- to full-bodied brand, whose five sizes averaged 88.6 points in a January 19 Cigar Insider vertical tasting).

"Every rolling event I would host, I would be asked for a medium or even a mild cigar, and my first blend was very robust," said Paredes in a press release. "So now I'll have a cigar for the everyday smoker on the market."

Hamlet 25th year will be packaged in distinctly blue, 20-count boxes.

Hamlet 25th Year, which will be a regular-production cigar, features an Ecuadoran Habano wrapper, Pennsylvania broadleaf binder, and filler from Nicaragua and Honduras. The name is a nod to Paredes' 25 years of experience in the cigar industry, which includes his time working as a Habanos S.A. ambassador traveling the world educating consumers with in-store rolling demonstrations and Cuban tobacco seminars.

Hamlet 25th year will be packaged in distinctly blue, 20-count boxes in only three sizes: Robusto, measuring 5 1/2 inches by 50 ring gauge; Toro, 6 1/2 by 52; and Sixty, 6 by 60. Suggested retail prices range from $8.75 to $10. The company says that they wanted to keep the available sizes "simple" and in line with the most popular sizes on the market today. The original Tabaquero brand never had a 6 by 60 size, so the company wanted to oblige fans.

Hamlet 25th Year is being made at TaviCusa, Rocky Patel's cigar factory in Nicaragua.